Swirl Inlay Tutorial

Really simple. This is one of those ‘looks way harder’ than it really is moments.

Here is the blank being cut (Atlas/Patriot/Polaris). I stop the blade just a little before half way. It is at a 45 degree angle. And I have a stop block to ensure the segments are going to be even all the way around. Although I imagine you could vary the segment up and down the blank.

You will notice that, because I like my fingers I don’t cut the blank to size until the swirl cuts are done

My planer goes down exactly to 1/8”, so a 1/8” blade work perfect for using that size of segmentation.

Here is the finished “Swirl” blank with the segments in place.

And here is the finished product. Well almost, this is a different pen. The other pen is sold and I have no pictures of it.

You have taken all the mystery out of it. Here I thought that these were created through some time honored process that takes years of practice to learn (kind of like dovetails). :) Why this looks like even I could do it. If I only had a lathe, of course. (Deep sigh).

Thanks for the post. Instructional posts like this are what LJs is really about.

I appreciate this.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

this is one of the cool things about turing pens, it may look complex but it really isn’t all that bad.I like using my table saw for stuff like this. I have a setup fairly similar to what gary shows in his celtic knot blog.

I like the idea, but do not comprehend the process. What does the planer do to the pen blank? Most saw kerfs are 1/16”, so that does not compute with the 45 degree cuts. May we get a more detailed explanation of the process? Would love to try one of these. Also, like Perl, what and how did you fill in the cuts?